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Month: August 2015

Earlier this week I was feeling some stress. My most favorite stress-reliever is baking bread. Something about working with my hands, dough stuck to all of my fingers, will always bring me to my happy place. Plus, when it’s over: FRESH BREAD!

My go-to is this recipe, and as I am apt to do I made the loaves according to recipe the first time, and played a little the second go-around.

Ingredients:

Instructions:

Pour 1/2 C of the water into the bowl of a heavy-duty stand mixer. Sprinkle in the yeast & sugar, whisk to blend. Let the mixture rest for about 5 mins, until it’s nice & frothy.

This is actually the froth with the molasses (darker color).

Using a dough hook, add the remaining 2C of water, & about 3 1/2 C flour to the yeast mixture. Mix on lower speed until combined, then add 3 1/2 C more flour.

Increase the mixer speed to medium, and scrape down bowl & hook as needed until the dough begins to come together.

Add the salt, and knead on medium speed for about 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.

When the dough is mixed, add the butter, gradually, until incorporated. If the dough, begins to come apart here, don’t fret, keep kneading the dough & it will come back together.

Shape the dough into a ball & place it in an oiled bowl. Make sure it is a large enough bowl, since the dough will double in size. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rise for 1 hour.

Grease 2 standard-sized loaf pans, and set aside.

When the dough has risen you will want to punch it down to release the air, shape it into another ball, and split that in half, shaping each into a round shape with the edges tucked underneath.

Place each loaf in a pan, cover with plastic wrap, and allow to rise for 1 hour a second time. While the loaves rise, preheat the oven to 375F.

When the loaves have risen, bake for about 40 minutes until they are honey-brown and make a hollow sound when tapped.

Changing it up:

When I made my second round of bread, I used 1 tbsp of molasses in lieu of the sugar. It got frothy when mixed with the yeast, so I knew it was good-to-go for the bread rising. I did not find that this addition effected the flavor or color of the bread in any way. Other options to try include honey and agave nectar.

I love fish in a can. Not just tuna, but also salmon, octopus, kippers, anchovies, and yes, sardines. Fish in a can are a delicious, easy, cheap source of protein. Often, I will eat kippers or sardines straight out of the can. But every now-and-again I want to COOK with them: with pasta, in an omelette, the possibilities are practically endless.

Here’s a photo from a recent Facebook post of the ingredients of an easy weeknight supper. For the record, I will not buy the squid again (too much ink, not enough squid).

Then, every once in awhile I come up with a completely brilliant idea like this one…

Sardine BLT with Black Garlic Mayonnaise

makes 2 sandwiches

Ingredients:

4 slices seeded rye bread

1 can of sardines

6 slices of cooked bacon (still warm)

3-4 leaves Boston Bibb lettuce, rinsed and dried

1 plum tomato, sliced thin (about 3 slices for each sandwich)

1 tsp black garlic paste

1/4 C prepared mayonnaise

Instructions:

In a small bowl, combine garlic paste and mayonnaise until blended and smooth. Spread mayonnaise on one side of all 4 slices of bread, as thickly as desired.

Open the sardines and drain off any oil. Using half of the sardines for each sandwich, arrange sardines on 2 slices of the bread.

My Black Garlic is finally finished with 40 days of fermenting this weekend! When it was starting to get close I started to brainstorm dishes I could make with these precious, dark, earthy bundles of deliciousness.

Roast the chicken in the lower part of the oven 45 mins-1 hr, spooning the sauce over the chicken during the last 10 mins of cook-time.

Fun Facts about Black Rice:

Black rice is black because of the outer coating of black bran on the grain.

Black rice is a “superfood” & has more antioxidants than blueberries.

Black Rice looks purple when it’s cooked.

Black Rice is also known as “tribute rice”, “longevity rice”, and my personal favorite, “forbidden rice” (Remember Lambada, the forbidden dance?) because it was reserved for the Emperors of ancient China.

I’m cooking my inaugural pot of Black Rice according to the package instructions:

Place 1 C of rice in a saucepan.

Add 1 3/4 C water, bring to a boil & stir.

Reduce heat (to low) and simmer 35-45 mins.

Remove from heat & allow to stand covered for 5 mins.

Fluff with a fork & serve.

Slow-Cooked Black Beans Cuban-Style:

Dried beans take a little more prep than canned ones, but they are always much cheaper. Like double the amount for the same price. The soaking & rinsing are instructions you can use any time you are cooking dried beans. There is a quick method with boiling, but I have never had good results with it…

The good news, is the garlic odor did not take over my house as I predicted it would… It would get stinky for a few minutes when I opened the crockpot & unwrapped it. My hands would definitely get pretty stinky when I rotated the cloves so the bottom ones would be on top & vice versa.

Here are the cloves in the mini crockpot on Day 39…

At this point I started to peel the cloves.

Here’s a pile of the little wrinkly babies… Aren’t they CUTE?

Now, you can keep the cloves intact, throw them in a container in your fridge and use them in the place of regular garlic. I decided to make a Black Garlic paste for various future applications…

Black Garlic Paste

This Black Garlic paste has a salty pungent taste, not unlike fish sauce. Seasoning with salt whenever you cook with garlic is a good idea. I find that the salt “sets off” the flavors in the garlic. That is especially true here.